


Code Nude

by G_the_G



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: 5 Times, Darcy is the fandom bicycle and I love it, F/M, Fluff, Romance, SHIP DARCY WITH ALL THE THINGS
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-08-13
Updated: 2015-08-13
Packaged: 2018-04-14 12:13:15
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,605
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4564266
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/G_the_G/pseuds/G_the_G
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>5 Times fic that Darcy caught Tower residents missing clothing and one time she's caught under dressed.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Code Nude

**Author's Note:**

> So, this was just going to be a short little fluff piece. Yeah, 4600 words later. I was also going to try and pair Darcy with someone new. I failed. I'm absolute trash for Clint Barton.

There were a few things Darcy quickly learned after she moved into the Tower and became head Science! grunt in Jane’s lab. Never eat or drink anything that came from Tony’s lab. Jane didn’t trust anyone with her machines yet, so half of the time in the lab was still spent repairing and building things from scratch. If there was only one explosion on the Science! floors in the week, it was a good week.

All dangerous objects and activities considered, it seemed like common sense to be fully-clothed at all times in any lab. Yet, Darcy found herself walking in on various Tower residents in different states of undress on a regular basis.

 

1-

Darcy sighed as she once again shifted position in bed and stared at the ceiling. She had thought when she’d finally escaped the labs at midnight she’d be too tired to do more than fall into bed and sleep, but she was wrong. Her brain would not shut off. She kept rehashing the argument she’d had with Jane that afternoon, what she wanted to do that weekend, where her next vacation should be, how the movie she’d watched yesterday should have ended. The thoughts kept coming, kept evolving.

She had been meaning to upload all her playlists to the server so Jarvis could access them, but she hadn’t had time since they’d arrived. So now she was stuck in bed unable to sleep while her iPod sat on her desk down in the labs. The labs she had swore she didn’t want to see for at least twelve hours when she’d left earlier.

After another ten sleepless minutes Darcy gave up and groaned as she climbed out of bed. She put her sockless feet in her Doc Martens and threw a robe on over her pajama shorts and tank top. It was only a quick trip down and back, so she figured it would be fine and shuffled to the elevator.

Once she got down to the Science! floors, she was surprised to see the lights of Jane’s lab still on at full power. She was perplexed until she got to the lab door and saw Erik bent over his notes on a table. Tie and shirt neat and tidy, no pants, and dress socks and loafers.

“Erik, honey, what have we talked about going sans pantalones in the Tower?” Darcy called out as she walked into the lab.

Erik looked up from his mass of papers and stared at her for a moment. Since London he’d gotten better at placing everyone and everything, but there were still times when it would take him a couple of seconds to remember who she was. She stood still in the center of the lab until his frown cleared and he went back to his notes; then she moved to her desk to search for her iPod. She finally found it under her self-made Science! Bingo card and placed the treasured device in her pocket.

“Okay, as I was saying, the flat in London was one thing, but we don’t want to give Stark this kind of blackmail,” she announced as she turned to face Erik again.

“I need to think!” The scientist threw down his pencil and gestured to the papers spread in front of him. “These numbers prove that if I’m right—

“If you’re right we still don’t want to add sexual harassment lawsuits from startled Science! underlings to Maria’s plate.” Darcy walked towards the harried man and gently set her hand on his shoulder. “What happened to your kilt?”

Erik stared down at his papers and grumbled under his breath.

“What was that?”

“It’s too hot for the kilt.”

“Okay, tell you what. How about I help your take all these notes up to your room where you can work pantsless to your heart’s content and play master of climate control?”

Erik sighed and Darcy felt the shoulder under hand slump.

“Well, I guess—“

She moved her hand to his other shoulder and gave him a small side-hug.

“Plus, Natasha’s mission, which I of course know nothing about, should put her in Hawaii pretty soon. I’ll ask her to pick up some lava-lavas for you. Those will be cooler than a kilt.”

He looked up at her a small hopeful smile. “Really?”

“Really. Now come on Donald Duck, let’s get you upstairs.”

 

2-

“Darcy, where are those number from Bruce on space-time resonance and gamma radiation interference?”

Darcy paused in her collating of endless reports that Jane insisted on printing and glanced up at her boss quizzically.

“Uh, I don’t remember getting anything from Bruce in the last week.”

After a moment Darcy snorted remembering her encounter with Bruce two days earlier.

“Well, other than some mad shade when I called him Gumby.”

Jane paused in her frantic hunt through the mound of papers on her desk and closed her eyes.

“Please tell me you’re joking.”

“Why would I joke about such moments of hilarity?”

Jane opened her eyes and gaped at her former intern.

“Hilarity? Insulting not only one of the most brilliant scientists that I work with on a regular basis and can still stand but the one who has a slight anger problem? That’s what you consider hilarity?”

“Don’t worry, he wasn’t offended. In fact, he implied I’d be Pokey.”

Jane tilted her head and raised an eyebrow. “Pokey?”

“The talking horse sidekick. Kind of insulting, I know, so I feel like we bonded over the whole experience.”

Jane sighed and nodded as if that made perfect sense. Considering Darcy, it did.

“Fine, can you go get those numbers for me?”

“Sure thing, boss lady!”

Darcy hopped down from her stool and exited Jane’s lab. In all honesty, she did really feel like she had bonded with Bruce the last few weeks. It had come from moments like the one she’d told Jane about. Darcy was never going to be as ballsy as Tony in referencing the Hulk, but Darcy figured she could try and make sure Bruce knew she wasn’t worried around him.

As she neared his lab space, she remembered the fanart of the Hulk as the Jolly Green Giant she’d saved and pulled out her phone so she could show Bruce. She was scrolling past pictures of Super Husbands she’d also saved for days when Tony was pissing her off and didn’t bother to look up as she entered Bruce’s lab.

“Hey, Dr. Fluffy. Jane needs those numbers on something something resonance and gamma rays or whatever you were going to send her.”

A small gasp came from a couple feet to her right and Darcy quickly looked to see what was wrong.

Nothing was wrong, if walking in on Bruce shirtless and with pants hanging dangerously low off his hips was considered to be normal.

“Uh, Bruce?”

“Sorry, just give me a sec.”

He grabbed the waist of his trousers and hurried over to a tall cabinet against the wall. He pulled out a shirt and hurriedly pulled it on. Darcy was tempted to take a picture to make all the fangirls online jealous, but instead put her phone back in her pocket and stared at the not-so-fully-clothed scientist curiously.

“Not that I’m complaining, mind you, the yoga’s really paying off and all, but, uh, what’s with the lab nudism?”

Bruce chuckled as he finished buttoning his shirt and looked up at Darcy.

“Not intentional, I promise.”

“No? Your clothes decided they were unworthy of your rockin’ bod?”

Bruce went back to rifling through the cabinet and didn’t answer.

Darcy suddenly remembered why Bruce usually lost his clothes.

“Wait, you didn’t Hulk out did you? I swear I didn’t hear anything and I thought Jarvis put everything on lock down when that happened.”

“Well, yes and no,” he said over his shoulder as he dug a belt out of the magical wardrobe cabinet.

“Care to elaborate?”

Bruce finished fastening his belt, took a deep breath, and nervously looked back at Darcy.

“I started “hulking out” as you say, but I was able to stop the change, so Jarvis didn’t notify anyone.”

“No way!” Darcy couldn’t hold in her excitement.  “I didn’t think you were able to stop the change once it had started.”

Bruce let out a whoosh of air and smiled, nodding.

“Only a couple times before. It’s getting easier.”

“That’s awesome! Although, what made you start changing in the first place?”

He suddenly seemed nervous again and looked anywhere but at Darcy.

“Brucey?” Darcy asked as she folded her arms and cocked a hip.

“I, uh, I got some lemon juice from my lunch in a paper-cut I had forgotten about,” he said as he looked down at his feet.

Darcy laughed and Bruce looked up at her startled.

“Yeah, I’ll totally give you that one. I’ve done that before with lime juice and I swore I was gonna die for a minute there.”

“True story. I’ll go get those numbers for you,” he said with a smile.

 

3-

Darcy hummed the Mission Impossible theme song to herself as she walked to the elevator, favorite shade of nail polish in hand. It had been a long week of late nights in the lab with Jane and early mornings in the gym with Natasha. Darcy couldn’t complain too much, she’d been the one to ask Natasha to train her. But she thought she’d get to learn how to be a total BAMF and slay naysayers left and right; not spend day after day learning how to fall. Her butt hadn’t felt this bruised since she tried ice skating when she was twelve.

So, Darcy figured she needed to treat herself; first order of business was pedicure. But treating herself to a pedicure would require leaving the tower to get someone else to do it and she didn’t feel like putting on pants now that she was in her pajamas. And painting her toes herself would require bending; it hurt to breath, let alone contort herself to be able to reach her toes without painting half of her foot. Hence, she was making her way to Tony’s lab at 9:00 on a Friday night: Dum-E.

A couple of weeks earlier Tony had asked Darcy to wait in his lab while he went to talk to Bruce “for two seconds”. Two hours later, Darcy had discovered that the inventor’s robot might not be the best help for actual lab work, but could wield a nail polish brush better than most nail technicians she’d met.

Thankfully Tony had some charity event that evening and Pepper had demanded he attend, leaving the robotic cohort unattended.

But when Darcy got to the lab it wasn’t empty. Instead, there was a definite presence of one genius billionaire who looked at her with raised eyebrows as he stood in nothing but a pair of Iron-Man-red silk boxers.

Darcy was the first to recover.

“Any particular reason you’re practically naked in your lab, Tony?”

“Any particular reason you’re in my lab when I’m practically naked, short stack?”

“I asked you first.”

“I asked you second.”

The two stood staring at each other, Tony unconcerned he was in only his underwear and Darcy staunchly ignoring that fact. She was surprised when he sighed and turned away after only thirty seconds.

“Not that I don’t love our little impasses, Science! gremlin, but I have approximately eight more minutes to get in my tux and down to the car before Pepper fulfills her threats of maiming and disfigurement.”

Darcy laughed and sat on the nearest stool spinning the nail polish on the table in front of her to give Tony privacy he didn't seem to require as he put on the tux that had suddenly appeared in Dum-E’s claw.

“Since when do you actually take her threats seriously?”

“Since she started going to lunch with Nat on a weekly basis. Nat’s been smiling at me. I don’t trust it.”

“Paranoid much?”

“Hey, I’m still alive, aren’t I? Didn’t get here through blind trust. Speaking of, you never said why you were here.”

Darcy hastily covered the nail polish with both hands and looked up at Tony. She was surprised to find him already in shirt and pants, tying his bow tie with a questioning look on his face.

“Dude, how did you get dressed so fast?”

“I’d tell you but I’d have to kill you.”

She rolled her eyes.

“No more deflecting, we were discussing what brings you to my epic abode. It wouldn’t happen to be that nail polish you’re hiding, would it?”

Darcy shrugged and attempted to look innocent.

“And you wouldn’t happen to be why Dum-E keeps going after the suit with a paint brush and gold sparkles?” Tony asked putting in his cuff links.

“In my defense, I did not teach him that. He just deduced that you might enjoy some glam as well.”

“Remind me to have Pep send you a memo about misappropriating company tech for personal use. They get feisty by the third one they send.”

Darcy snorted.

“Hurry up, Tony. You’re gonna be late.”

Tony shrugged on his coat and sauntered towards the door.

“Already gone. Don’t keep Dum-E up too late. He needs his beauty rest.”

 

4-

Darcy stopped dead in her tracks in the threshold of Tony’s lab and took in the sight of the three specimens standing with their backs to her. Steve was shirtless and in some sort of neoprene leggings that showed off his muscles and his muscles’ muscles. Sam was slightly more clothed as he wore his tactical pants over the skintight layer but he still didn’t have a shirt on; hello back definition! Then there was Clint; he was in nothing but a tight little pair of Hawkeye boxer briefs—bows and arrows all over of his fine, fine ass.

Tony cleared his throat and Darcy finally noticed billionaire standing a few feet away from the other men. He grinned and her brain kicked back into gear.

“You know, Tony, if you’re going to continue having parties like this, you really need to invite me.”

The three men turned quickly at her voice and Darcy chuckled at their different reactions. Sam laughed and went back to trying on new armor, which was what the three men must have been doing before she entered. Steve was unembarrassed, but hurried to cover up as any gentleman raised in the 40s would when a lady entered the room. Clint, hussy that he was, turned and grinned at her shamelessly, hands on his hips.

“You know you only have to ask to get me naked, Darce.”

Darcy reminded herself to maintain eye contact with Clint; she was a professional, thank you very much. Her brain repeated ‘look at his eyes, look at his eyes, look at his eyes’ as her personal litany. But then he licked his lips and grinned. And she looked at his mouth, then his jaw, then followed the line of his throat down to chest, then trailed the impressive meavage down to his fabulous abs.

She and Clint been flirting with each other for weeks and she gave as good as she got, but she’d lost all power of speech or even rational thought at that moment. And Clint could tell.

Tony cleared his throat and Darcy turned and blinked at him. He apparently could tell too, but had decided to save her from her creeper leer. She could kiss him.

“Sup, shortstack? That the scanner Foster wanted me to fix?”

Darcy gave a short cough and walked forward to hand off the equipment she thankfully hadn’t dropped in her distraction.

“Uh, yeah, and Jane wanted me to remind you that in no way, shape, or form were you to ‘Starkify’ it.”

Darcy handed off the scanner and wiped her sweaty palms on her jeans.

Tony examined the machine in his hands.

“Please. Any changes I made would absolutely improve this.”

“You’re entitled to your wrong opinion.”

“Psh,” the inventor twisted and leaned over to set the equipment down on a nearby table.

Darcy turned back to see that Steve and Sam had begun and in-depth conversation about their armor’s range of motion. She hoped the conversation began soon enough they hadn’t noticed her short circuiting. Clint on the other hand, still stood there in nothing but that stupid purple underwear and a smirk.

“See something you like?”

“Ugh, you’re such a cheese-ball.”

“Yeah, but you like it.”

“Put some clothes on Barton. The cold air seems to be effecting your brain.”

He didn’t move to put anything on; just kept staring and grinning.

Darcy figured a tactical retreat was her best option.

“Okay, anyway, Stark, you get that scanner up and going. Everyone else, enjoy your battle makeover.”

She quickly made her way to the door and waved without looking as Steve and Sam called out their goodbyes. She told herself she wasn’t going to look back. She wasn’t going to see if Clint was still deliciously unclothed.

She failed.

Clint was still practically naked. He was also still watching her.

Darcy swiveled back around to make a hasty exit before she genuinely embarrassed herself.

She heard someone clap their hands behind her and figured it was Tony as he had started to speak.

“All right, Cupid, hurry up and get your gear on. You can clumsily seduce Darcy later; I want to get all the new design specs into Jarvis sometime this century.”

Darcy didn’t know if Tony thought she was out of earshot or not. But she wasn’t waiting around to find out.

 

5- 

A week after the Avengers left on a mission so secret Jarvis refused to give any sort of roundabout clues, Darcy carefully made her way down to Jane’s lab with an armful of comfort items. She had a box of Jane’s favorite cookies, the big fluffy blanket that Thor always used, and Jane’s favorite body pillow. The scientist would swear she wasn’t worried, but the fact that she hadn’t left the lab in the last 14 hours and wasn’t close to any breakthrough would negate that argument.

Darcy shuffled into the lab quietly, ear buds in place, and slowly felt her way to the nearest desk with her feet. She set the pile down and pulled out an ear bud to try and lure Jane away from Science!.

“Hey, Jane—WOAH! What the hell?!”  She yelled whirling back to the desk and averting her eyes.

Apparently the Avengers had made it back.

 “I did not need to know my boss was that flexible!" Darcy took a couple of slow breaths trying not to hyperventilate. "Although, bravo.”

 “Uh, Darce,” Jane’s voice came out muffled, but Darcy wasn’t turning around to see why.

“You know what, nope. I’m out. You enjoy your reunion. I’ll leave this here but I’m taking the cookies.” She grabbed the pastries and hustled towards the door not caring if Jane knew what she was talking about.

“Welcome back, Thor,” Darcy called as an afterthought right before she made it out the lab doors.

As she waited for the elevator Darcy paused her music and pulled out the other ear bud.

“Jarvis, man, there’s gotta be some way you can make sure I never discover in flagrante delicto facts about Jane and Thor ever again. I am so going to need some brain bleach.”

“What would you suggest, Ms. Lewis?”

“You gotta lock down the lab next time they’re like that.”

“I’m sorry, Ms. Lewis. Unless there is a state of emergency or security breach, my programming does not allow me to secure the labs without Mr. Stark’s command.”

“I think this counts as both an emergency and major personal security breach, Jarvis!”

“My current guidelines do not agree with you.”

“Ugh, fine, can we set up some sort of Copulation Protocol where you at least warn me so I don’t walk in on that again. I need some warning, dude!”

“I shall endeavor be of service should the situation arise, Ms. Lewis.”

 

+1

Darcy was going to get even with Tony if it was the last thing she did. He had stolen her phone because she refused to upgrade to his stupid Stark tech. She had found a replacement Stark phone on her desk but there was a line and Tony had crossed it.  She and Bubba had a deep bond that only existed between a formerly poor intern and the phone she had nursed into old age. Jarvis totally loved her and let her know her precious phone was in Tony’s lab, but the AI couldn’t do anything else other than turn off monitoring while she searched.

So, there she was creeping around in the lab while Tony was off playing Science! with Bruce and Jane across town. She hoped she had at least another couple hours to search the lab. The place was huge and Tony did not keep it clean. Her little Bubba could be anywhere in there.

Darcy had finished searching through a pile of spare parts and turned to move on to the next pile, when her elbow caught a tall cylinder. She hurried to catch it, trying to leave as much of the lab as untouched as possible, but in her frantic effort to pull the thing upright she overcompensated. The container was full of some liquid that sloshed and spilled its contents down Darcy’s front, soaking her shirt and jeans.

Whatever was now all over her smelled like aviation fuel mixed with stagnant coffee sludge mixed with her worst nightmares. Darcy began to gag and hurried over to the contamination shower in the corner. She stripped off her clothes and scrubbed down as best as she could in the cold water. Darcy thanked Thor that whatever that hell-water was it hadn’t gotten into her hair or underwear. Getting the stench out of her hair would have been horrendous and there was no way she was going full-naked in Tony’s lab. Tony would never find out because Jarvis was her bud but she would know.

It wasn’t until Darcy turned off the freezing spray of the emergency shower that she realized she was standing in Tony’s lab, not naked, but still soaking wet and in only her underwear. Of course it was laundry day, so it was the skimpiest of thongs and her lacy and less comfortable bra. But Tony had a wardrobe cabinet for when his clothes were too grease-stained and he had to immediately go somewhere with Pepper. Darcy figured she’d just throw in whatever spare he had over her wet underclothes until she could change and hurried over to the cabinet dripping water along the way.

She had just reached out to grab a sweatshirt when she heard a strangled sound behind her. Darcy froze, hand on soft cotton, and turned her head.

Over her shoulder she saw Clint staring at her.

It wasn’t like she hadn’t ever expected Clint to see her like this. They’d been dancing around each other for a couple of months and her lecherous stare-down with him in Tony’s lab a couple weeks before clued him in on her genuine interest. It seemed inevitable that they were going to get together. But she had plans, dammit. Darcy didn’t have a three-date rule, but she liked to at least get some sort of romantic understanding of someone before diving right in: she wasn’t a one-night stand or casual kind of girl.

Flirting was one thing, getting physical another.

And Clint’s expression said his mind had gone straight to the second option. An expression that stayed in place as his eyes slowly traveled from the tips of her toes all the way up her body until he finally met her eyes.

Clint swallowed and blinked at her.

“Uh, Darcy. Why are you practically naked in Tony’s lab?”

His voice stirred her into action. She squawked and yanked the sweater out of the cabinet and pulled it over her head as quickly as she could. The sweater barely hit her at her upper thighs—stupid Tony and not being tall like Steve or Thor. One of their sweaters would have fit like a dress.

Darcy fiddled with the hem, cursing her luck, and took a deep breath before she looked up at Clint. He must have sensed her discomfort because he looked her squarely in the eye before gazing somewhere over her shoulder.

Ever the gentleman.

Darcy felt a little mushy and cleared her throat to focus.

“It’s not by choice. Blame the Stark equivalent of the Bog of Eternal Stench.”

Clint’s brows furrowed and Darcy sighed.

“I’ll introduce you to the treasure that is David Bowie and leggings later.”

“Okay, great, but again, why?"

“I, uh, I was looking for something and spilled something horrible all over me. It was either strip-down and shower or lose my lunch.”

“Probably was one of Stark’s forgotten energy shakes. Those things are rank even before they go bad,” Clint responded, eyes still focused somewhere above her left ear.

“Whatever it was, as you pointed out, I’m now practically naked in Tony’s lab and don’t want to be.”

“Yes you are.”

Darcy didn’t know if he was trying to be obtuse but figured there was an easy way to solve that problem.

“Clearly I need help here. Wanna save me, hero boy?”

Clint glanced back at her with a smile before he turned and went to another cabinet farther down the room. He pulled out something made of a dark fabric and tossed it to her without looking.

“These are some tactical pants I came down to fetch. They should keep you covered for now.”

Darcy scrambled into the pants and cinched the buckles at her waist to keep them from falling to her ankles.

“So, what were you looking for?” Clint asked.

When she looked up Clint was facing the other wall, giving her privacy.

She was definitely feeling mushy now.

“Oh, uh, just Bubba.”

“Your phone? Why is your phone in Stark’s lab?”

“Sanctimonious tool thinks Bubba’s outdated.”

Clint chuckled and shoved his hands in his pockets.

“Babe. He has a point. You’re lucky that thing works at all.”

“Blasphemy!”

“Truth.”

“Just for that I’m gonna make you find Bubba for me.”

Clint smirked over his shoulder and, noticing her fully-clothed status, turned to face her.

“And why would I do that?”

“Because I’m not going to give you these pants back until you give me Bubba.”

“You drive a hard bargain,” Clint said as he shook his head.

“Oh please, you can probably just ask Jarvis. I doubt Tony forbade him from telling you like he did me.”

“Valid.”

“So, do we have a deal?”

Clint folded his arms and studied her for a moment.

“I accept your terms. When will the exchange take place?”

“Hmmm." Darcy copied his posture and pretended to study him in return. "7:30. Tonight. That pizza place you like.”

“Yeah?” Clint asked, looking hopeful.

Darcy walked over to where he stood and wrapped her arms around his neck.

“Yep. You’re buying, hot shot.”

He rested his hands on either side of her waist, stroking his thumbs along her ribs.

“I think I can handle that,” Clint murmured as he leaned forward.

Darcy tilted her face up but then tensed and leaned back.

“I should warn you that you’re not gonna get another look at me practically naked tonight.”

“Didn’t expect to, sweetheart.”

“No?”

“Expect, no. Hope, hell yes.”

Darcy smiled and closed the distance to kiss him. He was definitely going to catch her naked again; sooner rather than later.

**Author's Note:**

> I'm [awww-brain-no](http://awww-brain-no.tumblr.com/) on tumblr if you want to stop by!


End file.
